Heel-making machinery



Oct. 27,1925. 1,558,755

R. C. SIMMONS- HEEL MAKING MACHINERY Filed March 26, 1921 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 Oct. 27, 1925- R. C. SIMMONS HEEL MAKING MACHINERY Filed March 26. 1921 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 N PP -SWW

MAE/vim? I Oa. 27,.1925- 1,558,765 R. c. SIMMONS HEEL MAKING 'MACHINERY Filed March 26, 1921 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 j w! D a m m pr t Fig 10 R. C. SIMMONS HEEL MAKING MACHINERY Fil Oct 21.,

6 Sheets-Sheet 4 March 26 1921 WVE/VTUZ? Oct. 27,1925. w 58,765

R. c. SIMMONS HEEL MAKING MACHINERY I Filed uacn 26, 1921 e Sheets-Sheet 5 Oct. 27,1925- .5 8.765

. R. C. SIMMONS HEEL MAKING IIACHINERY Filed March 26. 1921 K a Sheets-Sheet s- Patented Get. 27, 1925.

' UNITED STATES V 1,5sa7es PaT |:-:1\rr O'FFlC'E.

RALPH C. SIMMONS, OF BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, A'SSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOEMA- CHINERY CORPORATION, JERSEY.

OF PATERSON, NEVI 'J'ERSE-Y A CORPORATION OFNEW HEEL-MAKING MACHINERY.

Application filed March 26, 1921. Serial No. 455,754.

1 0 all whom "it may concern:

Be it known that LIB-earn C. SrMrroNs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Beverly, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Heel-Making Machinery, of which the following description in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to heel making machinery and, more particularly, to machinery for producing a heel or heel section including one or more so-called pieced lifts; al-

though it should be understood that many features of the invention are valuable in the manufacture of heels or heel sections consisting entirely of whole lifts.

In the manufacture of heels in quantity with the aid of automatic heel building new chinery, the usual practice is to stack previously died out lifts ofleather or leatherboard in the magazines of an automatic heel building machine, by which they are fed out singly and assembled into heel form.

While automatic machines for building pieced lift heels have been devised, they are, of necessity, quite complicated and must be supplied with pieces of certain predetermined sizes and shapes which have, in a separate operation, been died out from scrap leather. Under ordinary commercial conditions these pieces are so non-uniforn'i in thickness and quality and are so likely not to be entirely flat, that considerably difficulty is met in handling them entirely automatically. T his latter diiiiculty, indeed, exists in connection with the automatic handling of all heel lifts of leather, and heels which are built by automatic heel building machines are (imposed mostly of leather board lifts which are more nearly flat and uniform in thickness.

An object of the present invention is to produce an improved machine, with the aid of which scrap leather may be efficiently utilized in the production of heel blanks or heel sections adapted for use in an automatic assembling machine where they may be assembled with other sections or lifts to form heels.

It is desirable that the labor and ex uniform in thickness.

reduce, somewhat, the thickness of the thicker pieces of the pieced lift and, perhaps, to force the thicker pieces partially into the substance of the whole lift, which may conveniently consist of leather board, amaterial whichis usually softer than the leather of which the pieced lift is made. In the specific embodiment of the invention herein illustrated and described, the scrap leather to form the pieced lift is cut into a die and then assembled with a whole lift produced from a magazine. The assemblage is then subjected to heavy pressure between parallel, fiat plates after which it is automatically zine.

In another aspect of the invention, a machine is provided for producing av multiliftheel orheel section comprising one or more lifts, either whole or pieced, which are made by the machine and one or more lifts,

which are made elsewhere and supplied to the machine. In this connection a material advantage may be realized by utilizing the machine tocutout, or otherwise manufacture, a lift or lifts composed of material which is difficult to handle entirely auto matically and then assemblingsuch lift or lifts automatically with another lift or lifts composed of material suited to entirely automatic handling. A typical example of this use would be the manufacture of a leather lift and the assemblingof that lift with a separately made leather board lift, it being economical and comparatively simple to produce leatherboard lifts in quantity entirely automatically.

The features above pointed out, and other valuable features and advantages of the inyention will be readily understood and applaced in a receiving maga- 1 Fig. 4 is a vertical section in the plane [.4 4 at Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section in the plane S 5 of Fig. 4;

Figs. 6, 7, 8 and 9 are views of details of the clutch operating mechanism for controlling the application of power to the ma chine; and

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of a two-lift heel section which may be produced by the machine.

In the drawings, 7

10 indicates a suitably formed base frame which supports and encloses the major part of the operating mechanism. The top ofthe base 10 is formed to provide a table 12 (see Fig. 2) from which rises a supporting arm-or bracket 14. A shaft 16, running in bearings 18, in the upper part of the supporting bracket 14 has. secured to it a pulley 22. which is continuously driven by a belt 24 deriving power from a pulley 26 secured to a worm wheel 28 which is driven by a worm 30, mounted upon the shaft 32 of a continuously running electric motor 34.. T l e worm wheel 28 is mounted to rotate freely upon a shaft 36 whiehmay he termed the main driving shaft and which will be further described hereinafter.

The forward end of the shaft 16 carries an eccentric 3L connected by a strap 40 to a vertically reciprocating plunger 42 which is kept continuously in motion. An up- -wardly facing cutting die 44 having the outlineof the blank which it is desired to produce is adiustably secured upon the table 12 by bolts or screws 46 and a cutting plate, or block. 48 is arranged to co-act with the die to cut lifts intothe latter.

The cutting plate 48 carried by a plunger =50 which has a handle 52 suitably formed to be engaged manually and is guided in the bracket 14 for vertical reciprocating movement in a path parallel to the path of the plunger 42. The plunger 50 is normally supported in the position shown in Fig. 1 by a spring 54 which is comparatively light so that the plunger may be easily depressed manually against its'tension. The upper limit of movement of the plunger is determined by a stop pin 56 which engages the under side of the supporting arm 14.

A straight edging shear 58 of the ordi- Fig. 1 by a spring Pressed Plug nary, well known type, is arranged in convenient proximity to the die 44 and is continuously operated by an eccentric 60 upon the shaft 16.

Apawl 62 is pivotally mounted in the plunger 42 and is held toward the left in Although the pawl rec-iprocates continually in a vertical path its end portion merely slides idly upon the smooth, adjacent face of the plunger 50 until the plunger is depressed manually to a point where the cutting plate 48 is close to, or in engagement with, a piece of'heel stock resting on the upper edge of the die 44. hen the plunger 50 is depressed as described, a notch 66 in its rear face reaches a position where it will be engaged by the end of the pawl on the next downward stroke of the plunger 42, thus forcing the cutting plate 48'down into engagement with the edge of the die and cutting the stock into the latter. W'hen the handle 52 is released by the operative the spring 54 causes theplunger 50 to rise with the plunger 42 until the tail 68 of the pawl 62 engages a stationary roll 70, causing the pawl to turn in a counter clockwise direction and to become disengaged from the notch 66, whereupon the plunger 50 rises further. the notch 66 being above the operative range of movement of the pawl which continues to reciprocate idly, as before. If the piece of heel stock which has been cut into the die does not cover the entire area of the die. another p ece will be selected by the operative, st night-edged upon the shear 58. titted against the edge of the piece already cut, and the cutting operation just described will be repeated. This will be continued until the entire area of the die is covered, that is to say, until a eou'iplete lift has been cut into it.

It will be observed that up to this point none of the mechanism within the base or housing 10 has been operated. All this mechanism has been stopped at the end of the previous cycle of the operation of the machine in the position illustrated in the various sectional views of the drawings. A lift having been cut in the die 44, as above described, the operative depresses-a treadle 72 which is connected to a rocker arm 74 secured to a rock shaft 76. The shaft 76 has. also, rigidly secured to it, a rocker arm 78 having a pair of lugs 80, through which are threaded adiustable set screws 82 which will be hereinafter referred to in more detail. The screws 82 are arranged to engage a pin 84 which projects laterally from a lever 86. secured-rigidly to a sleeve 88 which is loosely mounted upon the shaft 7 6. The sleeve 88 also carries a clutch shifting arm 90 which is forked at its upper end and piov'ded with trunnions 92 engaging in a groove 94 in the conical member .96 which is mounted to slide longitudinally of the shaft 86. A slidable collar 98 surrounds the shaft 86, one end of the collarengaging the member 96 and the other end engaging a sleeve 100 which is slidable longitudinally of the shaft but is constrained to rotate therewith by two fingers 102 which pass threaded upon the hub of the male clutch member 116 and secured in adjusted posi tion by a. lock nut 112. A co-operating fe male clutch member isformed in the pulley 26 which, as previously described, is'loose upon. the shaft 36. 'A helical compression spring llal interposed between the two members of the clutch tends, at all times, to disengage the clutch.

In order to insure that the clutch shall not become accidentally engaged, latch 116pivoted at 118 to the depending arm of a bell crank lever 120, 122 is arranged to hook over the upper end of the lever 86, locking the latter in its left'hand position with the clutch disengaged, as shown in Figs. 4 and 6. A downwardly extending arm 124 of the latch 116 is connected by a link 126 and lostmotion connection 128 to the upper end of the rocker arm 78.

The screws 82. are so adjusted with respect to each other andthe pin 8 1 as to permit some lost motion between the rocker arm 78 and the lever 86. When the treadle 72 is depressed, the rocker arm 78is moved sufficiently to disengage the locking latch 1.16 from the lever 86 before the lost motion between the screw 82 and the pin 8'1 is taken up. Further depression ofthe treadle, and consequent rocking of the arm'78 toward the right, operating througlrthe connections previously described, shifts the clutch member 110 toward the right and engages the clutch.

A loose sleeve 180 (see Fig. 8) surrounds 182. A spider 13 1 is secured upon the shaft :16 and pivoted in it are locking dogs136, the tails of which are operated against spring pressed plunger-s 138 by the rim of the conical member 96.

Vhen the conical member 96 is shifted toward the right to engage the clutch the dogs 136 are rocked bythe spring pressed plungers 138 until their ends engage behind. the end of the sliding sleeve 130, thus lockin; the clutch in engagement and setting the shaft 36 in rotation.

Rotation of the shaft 36 is transmitted to a cam 1 12 by mechanism comprising a gear 141 1 which meshes with a gear 1&6 secured to [a worm 'shaftl lS, a worm 150 also secured tothe worm shaft, and a worm 152 which is driven by the worm and doweled to the cam 1 12 by a pinltrl (see Fig. 4-). The worm gear 152 and the cam-1 :2 are journals-d to rot-ate in a horizontal plane about a vertical hollow bushing 156 supported in an upright hub 158 formed. in the frame 10. The direction of rotation of the worm gear 152 and the cam 1412 is indicated by the arrow in Fig. 5. i

A tappet 160 is so located on the top of the cam 1-fl2 that, at the beginning of the rotation of the cam the tappet immediately el'i 'ages a roll 162 in the lower end of a plunger 16st and elevates the plunger momentarily. Resting upon the upper end of the plunger is one end of a lever 166 which is movable about a stationary pivot 168. The other end of the lever is connected to an intermediate point of an arm 170 which is movable in a vertical plane about a stationary pivot 172. The free end of the arm 170 carries a presser 174- which is, by the elevation of the plunger 164, depressed into engagement with a vliftiB which has previously been deposited, by mechanism to be described hereinafter, in a position beneath the presser.

The lift B is supported upon a plate 176 having a depending stem 178 which enters a hole in a vertically movable plunger'180 having a slidinegbearing in the frame- 10 but prevented from rotation therein'by a spline 182. A compression spring 181 engages the lower end of the stem 178, tending to elevate the same, when permitted. The lower end of the plunger 180 carries a can). roll 186 which is located in a suitable path cut in the periphery of the cam 142. The mechanism so timed, that as soon the presser 17 1 engages the lift B the plunger 180 begins to descend at a rate somewhat faster than the movement of the presscr. .The plate 176 is, however, maintained in engagement with the under side of: the lift by the spring 184 until the lift has completely entered "the mold or form 188 sup ported by the outer end of a rotating car- .rier 190, whereupon the-plate 176, continuing: to descend, leaves the lower end of the form 188 and, the roll 1.62 dropping off the tappet' 160, the presser 17a rises, leaving the lift B in the form 188 in which it fits su'fiiciently tightly to maintain its position.

Rack teeth 191 in the side of the plunger 180 mesh with a gear segment 192 upon the arm 122, which moves about a stationary pivot 19 1, and as the plunger 180 descends the arm 120 of the bell crank lever is swung toward the right. This moves the latch 116 toward the riglihfirst taking up the lost motion 128 and then elevating the latch sufficiently to pass above the upper end of the lever 86, ready to hook over the'latter and move it toward the left to disengage the clutch at the end of the cycle of operation of the machine.

The lower'end of the lever arm 120 is connected by a link 196 to a lever 198 which turns loosely upon the rock shaft 7 6. The link 196 passes through an aperture in the lever 198, as shown in Fig. 7, and is provided with a collar 200 which engages one side of the lever. The other side of the lever is engaged by a spring 202 which surrounds the extended end of the link 196 and is held under compression by a nut 204. The upper end of the lever 198 is connected to a push plate 206 which rcciprocates beneath a lift magazine 208 in stationary guides 210. It will be understood from the preceding description that the descent of the plunger 180 has, through the connecting elements 192, 122, 120, 196, .198, caused the push plate 206 to be retracted toward the right, as seen in Fig. 4, from beneath the magazine 208, where it remains until the plunger 180 is again elevated at the end of the cycle of operation.

The next thing to occur after the descent of the plunger 180 is the rotary movement of the carrier 190 to a position over the die 44. A gear 212 secured to the shaft 86 meshes with a gear 214 upon a short, vertical shaft 216, upon the lower end of which is a pinion 218 meshing with a gear 220 which rotates about a vertical stationary stub shaft 222. Doweled to the gear 220 is the pin wheel 224 of a Geneva intermittent gear, the star wheel 226 of which is secured to a vertical shaft 228 which is rotatable within the bushing 156 and has secured to its upper end the carrier 190. The timing of the mechanism is such that as soon as the plunger 180 has descended the Geneva gear causes the shaft 228 to be rotated through one quarter of a revolution, moving the carrier 190 to a position where the mold or form 188 containing the lift B is directly over, and in register with, the die.

\Vhile the form remains stationary in this position a plunger 280, having at its upper end an ejecting plate 232', located within the die 44, and at its lower end a roll 234 located within the cam path in theperiphery of the cam 142, is elevated by the cam, forcing the lift which has previously been cut into the die upwardly out of the die and into the under side of the form 188 intoengagement with. the lift B already contained therein. The plunger 230 immediately descends and the Geneva gear causes the shaft 228 torotate through another quarter revolution, moving the carrier 190 to a position where the mold or form 188 is between a stationary compressing member 236 and a movable compressing member 238.

The member 238 is adjustably mounted in the upper end of a vertically reciprocable plunger 240 which is actuated by a toggle 242. The lower end of the toggle is journaled in the machine frame at 244 and the center of the toggle is connected by a connecting rod 246 to a crank 248. The crank shaft has secured to it a heai y gear 250 with which meshes a pinion 252 mounted upon a pinion shaft 254 driven by a gear 256 meshing with a gear 258 having a hub 260 which is freely rotatable upon the shaft 36. The hub 260 is provided with teeth arranged to be engaged by corresponding teeth formed upon a memher 262 which is splined to the shaft 36. By engagement of the teeth of the members 260, 262 the gear 258 is clutched to the shaft 36 and caused to rotate. The engagement of this clutch is controlled by a cam lever 264 having at its end a roll which bears upon a cam 266 formed integral with the worm gear A spring 268 holds the cam roll against the periphery of the cam 266 and the latter is so formed that the clutch 260, 262 is engaged at the proper time to cause the compressing member 238 to rise when the mold 188 containing the assembled blank is in. register with it. The compressing member 238 is of the proper size and shape to enter the mold and force the blank therein upwardly against the fiat lower face of the stationary compressing member 236. The carrier 190 moves in a plane so located that the upper edge of the mold 188 will just pass under the member 236 and the blank is, therefore, confined on all sides while it is under compression. This compressing mechanism is very heavy and powerful and is designed to flatten the blank and bring the opposite faces thereof into parallelism, reducing somewhat the thickness of the thicker pieces of the pieced lift and, perhaps, forcing them partially into the substance of the whole lift, as illustrated in the blank shown in Fig. 10.

As the compressing plunger 240 reaches the bottom of its throw after the blank has been compressed the Geneva movement imparts another quarter revolution to the shaft 228 and the carrier 190, moving the mold 188 around to a position beneath a receiving magazine 270. The cam 266 is timed to disengage the compressor clutch 260, 262 at the beginning of this step in the rotation of the shaft 228, causing the compressing mechanism to stop with the plunger 240 and the compressing member 238 in their lowest position. Beneath the receiving magazine 270 is a vertically movable plunger 272 (see Fig. 3) having at its upper end a lift shaped plate 274 and at its lower end a roll 276 which travels in the path in the periphery of the cam 142. The mold 188, with the compressed and flattened blank contained therein, having stopped beneath the receiving magazine 270, the plunger 272 rises, passing up through the mold and left, swingingthe dogs 136 against ejecting the blanktheretrom int-oth'e re ceiving magazine. Yielding supporting pawls 2'78 are provided near the lowerend of the receiving magazine to permit the finished blanks to be inserted in succession into the lower end of the magazine and to support the stack of blanks as it accumulates.

The plunger 272 immediately descends and the Geneva movement comes into action to eifect the fourth, and final, step in the rotation of the shaft228 and the carrier 190 supported thereby, stoppingwith the carrier in its initial position as shown in Fig. 1. lVhen the carrier is stopped the continued rotation oi the cam 142 causes the plunger 180 to rise until the upper surface of the plate 176is flush with the top of the mold. The upward movement of the plunger operates, through the rack 101, gear segment 192, lever 120, 122 and link 196 to swing the lever 198 and move the push plate 206inwardly, removing the lowermost lift from the magazine 208, passing it over a paste roll 280, and delivering the lift, with its under side pasted,upon the plate 176. A stationary, adjust-able back gag-e 282, (seeFig. .2) centers and determines exactly the position of the lift upon the plate 176. The spring 202 affords a yielding connection between the positively operated lever arm 120 and the lever 198, avoiding danger of breakage if an obstruction should be encountered by the push plate 206and permitting the gage 282 to be adjusted for lifts of various sizes.

The swinging movement of the lever 120 also acts, through the hook 116, to drawthe lever 86 toward the left. conical member 96 to be moved toward the ilt pressure of the spring pressed. plungers 13S sufficiently to unlock the-sleeve 130 and per mit the spring ll l'to disengage theclutch. The internal mechanism of the machine is thus stopped ,in its initial position, with a pasted lift from themagazine 208 delivered upon the plate 17 6, ready for the next cyc e of operation when the treadle 7 2 shall again be depressed.

It will be readily understood that, if desired, a whole litt may be cut into the die 44 instead of a pieced lift; or that several lifts, whole or pieced, may be cut into the die and automatically assembled with the lift produced from the magazine 208. In this connection it is contemplated that the machine may be used in the manner suggested to produce blanks consisting of one or more lifts of material which is ditlicult to handle automatically and which are manufactured by cutting into the die 44, and a lift previously produced elsewhere which can be obtained autoi'natically from the magazine 208. If a plurality of lifts are to be This causes the cut intothe-die 44' each lift, excepath'e' last one cut, may be pasted by hand or by? any suitable mechanism prior to the cutting of the nextlift; i

Having described the inventionwhat is. claimed as-new and desired'to be secured by Letters Patent is 1; In' a heel machine, the con'ibination of manually controlled lift cutting mecha nism, a separate source oflittsupply, and means operatin entirely automatically to produce hits from said source of supply EXIlLlQtSSQIIlblB them with lifts cut byrsard 11ft cutting mechanism.

2. In a heel mak ng machine, the-combination'of means for cutting scrap material' into a pieced heel lift, means for combininga previously produced whole lift with the pieced lift and means for flattening the mult-i-lift blank thus produced.

23. In a heel making machine, the combination of mechanism for manufacturing a pieced heel lift, means for assembling with said lift another lift previously produced elsewhere, and means for subjecting the multi-lift blank thus produced to hea-vy res sure between parallel flat surfaces.- V

1-. In a heel makingmachine, the combination of a mold in which heel lifts maybe i anotherlift and inserting 'itin theunold in:

register'with the first liftyand' means for subjecting the multi-lift blank thus produced to pressure in the mold.

6.' In a heel making machine, thecombis nation of means for depositing heel lift in a predetermined position, a lift cutting die in another position, and a lift'assembling mold movable to the first position to receive the deposited lift and then into register with the die to receive a lift therefrom.

7. In a heel making machine, the combination of lift cutting mechanism, lift assem bling mechanism, blank compressing mechanism, a blank receiving magazine, and means for removing a compressed blank from the assembling mechanism and inserting it in the magazine.

8. In a heel machine, the combination of lift cutting and assembling mechanism, blank flattening mechanism, and means for automatically stacking the assembled and flattened blanks.

9. In a heel machine, the combination of lift cutting and assembling mechanism, blank compressing mechanism, and means for automatically stacking the assembled and compressed blanks.

10. In a heel machine, the combination of a lift assembling mold having an opening entirely through, means for pasting the sides of lifts facing the mold and inserting the lifts in one end of the opening, and means for inserting lifts in the other end of the opening into engagement with the pasted face of the lifts first insertedr 11. In a heel machine, the combination of a horizontally n'ioveable, lift assembling mold having an opening entirely through, means located at one station for pasting the under side of a lift and inserting itinto the top of the mold opening, means at a second station for inserting a lift into the bottom of the mold opening, and means at another station for ejecting the heel blank from the mold.

12. In a heel machine, the combination of a horizontally movable, lift assembling mold having an opening entirely through, means for inserting a lift into the top of the mold openingat one station, means for inserting a lift into the bottom of the mold opening at a second station, means for compressing the multi-lift blank thus produced in the mold at a third station, and means for ejecting the compressed blank from the mold at a fourth station.

13. In a heel machine, the combination of 1 lift cutting die, a lift carrier facing the cutting edge of the die, means for forcing a lift out of the die into the carrier, and means for forcing a lift into the carrier in the opposite direction.

14. In a heel machine, the combination of a lift magazine, a pusher constructed and arranged to remove a lift from the magazine and apply paste to one of its faces, a lift assembling mold movable to a position to receive the pasted lift, a lift cutting die, and means for moving the mold from the first mentioned lift receiving position to a position to receive a lift from the die.

15. In a heel machine, the combination of an upwardly facing lift cutting die, a lift compressing mold movable over the die, and means for forcing a lift upwardly out of the die into the mold.

16. In a heel machine, the combination of a lift cutting die, a lift magazine located at a higher elevation than the die, a lift carrier movable from a position adjacent to the magazine to a position adjacent to the die, means for inserting a lift from the magazine into one side of the carrier, and means for inserting ,a lift from the die into the a lift cutting die, means permitting an indc terminate number of pieces or lifts to be cut into the die, a magazine containing a stack of previouslv cut lifts, and means for pr0- ducing a single lift from the magazine and assembling it with said pieces or lifts cut into the die.

19. In a heel machine, the combination of lift cutting die, means permitting an indeterminate number of pieces or-lifts to be cut into the die, a magazine containing a stack of previously cut lifts, means for producing a single lift from the magazine and assembling it with said pieces or lifts out into the die, and means for compressing the blank thus produced.

20. In a heel machine, the combination of a lift cutting die, means permitting an indeterminate number of pieces or lifts to be cut into the die, and automatic means operating through a fixed succession of steps to assemble another lift with the contents of the die, to compress the blank thus produced, and to insert the compressed blank in a blank receiver.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

RALPH SIMMONS. 

